During a flight from Hangzhou to Beijing on October 22, for example,passengers of the giant Boeing 757 airplane - who were not allowed to smoke -were shown an ad for the 555 brand of cigarettes before they were able towatch the inflight entertainment programs.

The ad features the 555 brand as a huge blue planet with many people admiringit and carried the strapline: "Smoothness above all else". Tobacco ads canalso frequently be seen in the inflight magazines of some airline companies.

One of China's biggest cigarette manufacturers also found a way around thetobacco ads ban recently; it placed an ad detailing a change in its factoryname to one that included its most famous brands.